


The Phoenix

by finereluctance



Category: CSI
Genre: Greg has changed, Greg runs away to find himself, Greg's mom makes an appearance, M/M, Nick takes some vacation time, Original Female Characters - Freeform, maybe grown up a little, season 5
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2008-10-27
Updated: 2014-11-03
Packaged: 2018-02-22 10:03:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,205
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2503835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/finereluctance/pseuds/finereluctance
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>set following “Spark of Life” (season 5), when Sophia says “I heard you used to be a funny guy. Don’t lose that”; Greg begins to question himself and the way his life has changed since he left the comfort of the lab.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

***

Sophia’s words kept echoing in the back of Greg’s mind, repeating over and over in a loop, a broken record stuck on one repeating line—“I heard you used to be a funny guy.”

In the empty apartment, the words only seemed to ring more true. ‘Used to be a funny guy… used to be.’ the words haunted him as he trolled the apartment for something from that point in his life, when he was a carefree lab rat, before his vision had been jaded by the harsh realities of humanity.

The closet; he was sure he would find some shred of evidence in the closet. A bright red and orange silk shirt, his favorite gaudy gold polyester shirt that he found for thirty-five cents at a thrift store back in college, the daisy-dukes he had to wear to the LVPD Halloween party a number of years back after losing a bet… something. Greg knew he could find what he was looking for hanging next to Nick’s conservative black, gray, and blue hues, but all he could seem to find was his own subdued collection of shirts and pants. No flashy gold or orange, the only red being his old Stanford sweatshirt.

‘When did I get so boring?’ Greg wondered, falling backwards onto the bed he shared with Nick. ‘When did I become that guy? That guy, the conservative, serious worker who would rather spend his time at home with his boyfriend, watching the Discovery Channel, instead of going out on the club circuit on his night off.’ The thought spooked Greg—he was becoming everything he had been fighting his entire life. The gaudy, bright clothes fighting conformity within the workplace, his sunny and bouncy personality belaying the darkness and serious tones of adulthood. In spite of himself, he had become that guy, and he didn’t like it one bit.

“You used to be a funny guy…” the words reverberated off the walls of the bedroom, no longer Sophia’s haunting voice, but his own accusatory one.

The case had been hard on him earlier that day, hard on all of them, but Greg’s self-realization only added fuel to that fire. Fire, what a bad analogy after the case he had been working, but that’s exactly what it was. Fire was a necessary means of destruction, of killing off the old brush to usher in the new growth, of destroying what something has become to take it back to the beginning, a phoenix reborn from its ashes. Greg knew that it was his time, his chance, to catch flame and go back to the beginning, to find himself, to regain his lost identity.

In a split-second decision, Greg scribbled a note and made three phone calls as he walked out the door, one to a taxi company, one to Grissom, and one to an old friend of his.

***

Three hours later, while Nick was still in the field working through a double-shift, Greg was stepping off a plane into the blinding sun of Los Angeles.

“Sunny!” Greg waved at his old colleague as he exited security, hugging her warmly as he struggled to keep hold of his bag and her at the same time.

“Hey Greg,” Sunny’s smile radiated her warmth and happiness at seeing Greg back in LA for the first time since he had moved to Vegas more than six years earlier. “I’m so glad you could make it! I was starting to think you were ignoring my emails,” she teased, her keen eye taking in his somewhat disheveled appearance.

“Not ignoring you, just busy,” he assured her, releasing her from the hug and walking out towards the parking garage. “But I did make time to come all the way down here just to see you,” Greg teased, bumping her with his shoulder like they used to when they were younger.

Sunny bumped him back, her voice light but hinting that she knew that there was more to his re-appearance than he was letting on, “I’m glad you could make time for little ol’ me in that busy schedule of yours.”

“Actually, it was more because Jenna begged me to come down here,” he teased, “You were just the added bonus.”

“Did you call your mom yet?” Sunny asked, opening the trunk of her hybrid so Greg could drop his bag in.

“No, not yet,” he replied, climbing into the passenger seat. “I just decided to come down a few minutes before I called you.”

“Really?” she asked curiously, “You don’t have anyone you have to run things passed before you take off?”

“I let everyone know,” Greg said definitively, successfully ending the conversation. He didn’t want Sunny asking too many questions about why he had decided to leave Vegas for a while, because then he would have to think about Nick and the lab and things he’d rather not think about while he was in sunny California only a few short miles from the ocean.

Adeptly weaving her way through airport traffic and heading into downtown, Sunny let the conversation drop, making a mental note to bring it up again later when Greg was less defensive. “Do you want to crash at my place and get some sleep, or are you okay to just go into work?” she asked after a few minutes of silence.

“I slept a little on the plane,” he spoke more to himself than to his colleague. “Let’s just go into the lab.”

“Alrighty,” Sunny glanced over at her friend, taking a moment to observe him while he stared vacantly out the window. “You look good, Greg,” she announced, squeezing his knee lightly before placing her hand back on the steering wheel. His normally wild hair was cut shorter, flattened down with the gels he used to use to stand it up in crazy directions; his bright shirts replaced with a nice blue button up and fitted jeans. He looked older, more weary, like he had taken the weight of the world on his shoulders, and that worried her.

Choosing to ignore the comment because he didn’t necessarily agree with it, the CSI tried to find all the things that had changed since he left LA. Surprisingly, there weren’t many, especially as they moved closer and closer to the lab. “They finally finished the work on the 10,” he observed absently, noticing the lack of orange construction cones closing down the left two lanes. “I thought they were going to be working on that until the world ended.”

“They did,” Sunny laughed, “When the new mayor was elected it felt like the world had ended.”

Sunny’s laughter was contagious, infecting Greg even through the gloom surrounding him, causing him to laugh. “Finally, someone doing something good in this town,” he grinned at her, the familiar sparkle in his eyes.

“Thank god,” she agreed as they pulled into a parking spot on the street. “Because that just cut thirty minutes off our drive.”

The pair was still laughing as they made their way into the building, stopping at the front desk only long enough for Greg to pick up his name badge and access key. Their next stop was the fourth floor DNA lab, where Greg ran into his old boss.

“Greg Sanders, as I live and breathe,” Jenna greeted him with a heavy southern accent that had faded noticeably in the last six years. “I never thought I’d see you in these halls again.”

“You just caught me at a good time,” he conceded, giving her a hug. “It doesn’t look like much has changed around here.”

“Oh, you know, new equipment, new faces, that’s about it really,” Jenna gave him her best motherly smile. “There’s already a pile of backed up work on your desk.”

“Ah, that’s the Jenna we all know and love,” Greg grinned, shaking his head in amusement as he headed down the hall to his old workstation. It was like coming home, he noted, walking the halls of his old stomping grounds in the FBI lab, his smile coming easily as he waved at people he recognized and introduced himself to those he didn’t. Just an hour in LA had already lifted a weight off his chest he hadn’t realized he was carrying.

He laughed as he slid his access key through the lock, already able to see that Jenna was going to milk him for all he was worth while he was visiting, if that was any indication by the week’s worth of work already piled on his work station. He happily noted that everything was exactly where he had left it before he had moved away, as if the office had been frozen in time, no one disrupting his space in six years time. Even his favorite green coffee mug was still sitting upside down to the right of the computer monitor, not a trace of dust marking the passage of time since he had last set it down there to dry at the end of a long day. Flipping on the lights and machines to start warming up, Greg easily fell into his old routine, his mind comfortable in the familiarity.

He worked quickly and efficiently, sorting the paperwork and files into separate case piles and starting tests. Greg worked quietly with no distractions, unaware of the uncharacteristic silence filling his lab, his normal loud rock music forgotten. Since being promoted to a CSI he had no need to blast his music anywhere other than the car, the need for the distracting music having been left as part of his old life as a lab tech.

Sunny and Jenna stood together outside his lab for a few moments, watching him work in silence with no crazy dancing or loud music coming from inside.It was as if Greg had finally grown up a little, but he wasn’t the same Greg who had left them to work in the lab in Las Vegas, almost as if he was an empty shell of his former self.

“What happened to him up there?” Jenna asked, one eyebrow raised as her former employee kept himself bent over the machines, not even looking up to notice the two women standing in the window watching him.

“I don’t know,” Sunny admitted, worry filling her voice, “I really don’t know.”

“The last I heard, he was living with his boyfriend and had just passed his proficiency exam to be a CSI,” Jenna offered, baffled by the change in Greg’s demeanor since she had last spoken to him on the phone. “He was so excited… what would make him want to go back to lab work?”

“Something with the boyfriend?” Sunny asked, unsure herself as to what had caused the change in her friend.“If he did anything to hurt Greg, I’ll kill him myself,” she promised, fiercely protective over the lab rat-turned-CSI.

“I don’t think that’s it,” Jenna said, placating her colleague with a hand on the shorter woman’s arm to lead her away from the window. “But I’m sure we’ll find out. He’s here for two weeks, after all.”

Eight hours later, after Sunny had finally pulled Greg away from his lab with promises of Korean barbeque, the girls were no closer to finding the answers to their questions.

At the same time, Nick was just beginning to ask his own questions when he arrived home from a double-shift expecting to find his lover asleep in their bed, but only finding a note scribbled in Greg’s chicken scratch.  


_Nicky,_

_Went to help another lab with some back-logged paperwork and cases. Should be back in two weeks. I’ll call you when I can._

_Greg._

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nick discovers Greg left Vegas.

***

_Nicky,_

_Went to help another lab with some back-logged paperwork and cases.Should be back in two weeks.I’ll call you when I can._

_Greg._

***

Nick rubbed his tired eyes, trying to make sense of Greg’s note.Greg’s notes, emails, and text messages all tended to be long-winded, like his love when he talked incessantly.He was always gushing with information, mostly unnecessary information, but the one time Nick needed information, Greg decided to be terse and to the point.No information on where he went, no contact information, no “I’ll miss you,” or “I love you,” or even a “Goodbye”.Nothing.Just twenty-six short words that weren’t enough to tell him anything of substance.

Was he planning this trip?Did he request time off and not tell me?Did he buy a plane ticket?Did he even tell Grissom?Why didn’t he tell me he was going somewhere?Where is he?Questions ran rampant through Nick’s mind, more questions than Nick had answers to; questions that Nick _should_ have answers to as the boyfriend.

Nick hit speed-dial number one for the fifth time since he got home, and once again there was no answer, just the voice of his lover informing him that he had reached Greg Sanders and to please leave a message.Worried, and more than slightly annoyed, Nick jabbed at the ‘end call’ button on his phone, using all of his restraint not to throw the phone across the room.It wasn’t like Greg to ignore his calls.

Needing an answer to at least one of his questions, Nick hit speed-dial number three and waited impatiently for Grissom to answer.Fully aware that his supervisor would be asleep at this time of day, Nick didn’t care because all he wanted was answers as to where Greg disappeared to and why.

“Grissom,” the sleepy voice came over the line, causing Nick to fight his worry over Greg’s absence.

“Grissom,” he said slowly, giving the man a chance to wake up and giving himself a moment to calm his voice.“It’s Nick.I was wondering if Greg requested some time off recently, and if you knew where he was going.I got a really weird note from him.”

On the other side of Vegas, Grissom rolled back over in bed, thankful it wasn’t a call to a scene.“Nick,” the older man sighed, “Greg contacted me earlier.He had some vacation time built up that he needed to take, and his help was requested at another lab for the next two weeks so I told him that he could go.Why?”

“No reason,” Nick answered quickly, trying to cover up his mistake of calling Grissom with feigned indifference.“It was just a very odd to get a note from Greg since it didn’t say much of anything, and I couldn’t get in touch with him on his cell.”

“Go to bed, Nick,” Grissom tried to disguise a yawn on his end of the line, “You just got off a double and you have to be at work in a few hours.”

“Okay, thanks, Grissom,” Nick wrapped up the call, clicking end and dropping his phone onto the kitchen counter.

Pacing the length of the living room Nick tried in vain to calm his mind, failing as the questions circled and multiplied as minutes became hours.Every so often he dialed Greg’s number with the same result, until he was dialing it only to hear the recorded message in his lover’s voice.

“Greg, it’s me again,” Nick sighed, “please call me back as soon as you get this.I’m worried.”

Unable to calm himself enough to sleep, Nick struggled with the idea of taking a shower.The warm water might be enough to calm him and let the exhaustion take over, but he might miss Greg’s call while in the shower.Choosing to turn his ringer up as loud as possible and set it on the edge of the sink, Nick got into the shower, the room seeming larger and more empty than usual without Greg standing at the sink getting ready for the day.The warm water ran over his shoulders, easing away the tension of the double-shift, but unable to relieve the worry about Greg’s well-being.In the last two years they hadn’t gone more than ten hours without at least texting each other and the separation was weighing on him heavily.

By the time he got out of the shower thirty minutes later there were still no calls to his cell phone.In an effort to quickly get dressed and out of the empty bedroom that had once felt so warm and inviting but now only seemed oppressive and lonely, Nick failed to notice the absence of his old Texas A&M sweatshirt in the closet.Nor did he notice the closed lid of Greg’s laptop that was still radiating heat from its place on the dresser.

Once back in the relative safety of the living room and kitchen areas, Nick decided he would try one more time to get in touch with his boyfriend.After that, it was up to Greg to call him back.Standing in front of the refrigerator, Nick dialed the number for Greg’s mom that was stuck to the metal with a strawberry-shaped magnet, in the off chance he had gone back to California.

“Hello?” a pleasant voice answered on the second ring, startling Nick from his thoughts.

“Oh, um, hi, Mrs. Sanders,” Nick stuttered, stumbling over his words as he spoke to his boyfriend’s mother for the first time.“This is Nick Stokes, I’m a friend of Greg’s.”

“Oh, hello Nick,” she seemed surprised to be getting a call from him, and why wouldn’t she be?It wasn’t like Greg’s friends called his mother out of the blue all the time.

“Hi, um,” he continued struggling to form a complete, coherent thought.“I was wondering if you’ve heard from Greg recently.”

“No, I haven’t.Is everything alright?Is Greg hurt?Where is he?” Greg’s mom was beginning to get worried, her voice getting higher with each question, and Nick kicked himself for making her panic.

“No, no, ma’am, he’s fine,” he tried to reassure her.“He took a couple weeks off to help out at another lab, but he didn’t tell me where.I was wondering if he had gone back to California and had contacted you, because I can’t seem to get in touch with him,” he rushed through his words, trying to make it sound as if they were nothing more than friends.“I just had an important question for him about a case we worked a few weeks ago.”

“Oh,” it was obvious she had calmed down from his words.“No, I’m sorry son, but I can’t help you.I haven’t talked to Greg in over two weeks.If I do hear from him, I’ll be sure to tell him that you called, though,” she promised.“I have to go now, dinner is done and I have to get it out of the oven.”

“Thank you,” Nick managed to get out before the line clicked off and he was left listening to dead air.That was odd.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Greg’s mom gets an interesting phone call.

***

 

“Greg, thank god,” Maggie Sanders sighed, hanging up the phone and wrapping her grown son in a tight hug.  “You had me worried.”

 

Taller than his mother by more than a head, Greg stooped low to hug her back just as tightly, his head resting on her shoulder.  “I’m fine. Mom,” he tried to assure her.  “I just needed a little vacation time.”

 

“Then why are your friends from Vegas calling here looking for you?” she accused, pulling away from him and shaking a wooden spoon up at him.  “And saying they don’t know where you are?”

 

“Who called?” he asked, genuinely surprised that someone had called his mother to find him.  It wasn’t like anyone other than Grissom knew he was in California, and Grissom wouldn’t have called unless…   “Who was it?  Was it Grissom?  Is everyone okay?  Did something happen?”  Greg’s voice raised an octave and cracked.  He knew he sounded like his mother, her panic attacks were legendary after all, and he had learned from the best.

 

“It was someone named Nick,” she tried to soothe him, setting aside the spoon and placing a warm hand on his arm.  “He just had a question about a case and couldn’t reach you on your cell.  I’m sure everything else is fine, no one is hurt.”

 

“Oh,” Greg’s panic deflated at the mention of Nick’s name.  Sliding into one of the chairs lined up against the bar, he rested his head against the cool tile, his heartbeat slowing and breathing deepening as he recovered from even a short panic attack.  It was rare he had one anymore, but he could work himself into a frenzy at a moment’s notice, especially around his mother.  “I’ll call him later.”

 

Maggie Sanders was not a stupid woman, she had raised a brilliant boy like Greg at any rate, and so she knew there was something, probably a lot of somethings, Greg wasn’t telling her.  She knew he would tell her them in his own time, and so she gave him the time he needed, turning her attention instead to the pot on the stove and stirring it.  Satisfied the sauce wasn’t burning; she filled a glass with water and placed it on the counter in front of the blonde head that was still resting on the counter.

 

“So what brings you back to LA?” she finally asked after a few minutes of silence.  “I clearly remember you saying there was nothing that could get you to come back here, short of someone dying, and I haven’t gotten that memo.”

 

He lifted his face from the cool tiles to look at his mother, his normally bright brown eyes dull and lifeless, the bags under them telling of the strain he had been under recently.  “Jenna needed some help out here, and I had to take some vacation time, so I might as well get paid to go on vacation, right?” he tried to make a joke, the bad punch-line falling flat, unable to even force himself to smile through it.

 

Worried about Greg, but knowing that he wasn’t going to tell her any more than that right now, she pointed at the water glass.  “How about you go take a nap for a little bit,” she offered, her motherly instincts kicking in.  “I’ll come get you for dinner when everyone gets home.”

 

“Yes ma’am,” Greg nodded sleepily, reaching for the glass and shuffling out of the kitchen.  Now that he was home, the fact that he had been awake for over 48 hours and worked 36 of them was quickly catching up with him, his head hardly touching the pillow before sleep overtook him.

 

***

 

Checking that Greg had gone to sleep, she closed his door softly and went back to the kitchen, taking the phone off the cradle and pausing for only a moment before dialing.

 

*69, she punched into the keypad, lifting the phone to her ear and listening to it ring.

 

“Hello?” a young man’s frantic voice answered the phone, causing her to hesitate.  “Greg?  Babe?  Is that you?  Please say something…” the voice pleaded, and Maggie’s breath hitched in her lungs.  “Greg—” something in his voice, the worry and disappointment, broke her heart.

 

“Nick?” she asked cautiously, trying not to upset the man any further.  “This is Maggie, um, Greg’s mom…” she trailed off, unsure of what to say and how to tell this man she had never met that her son was home safe and sound and asleep in his childhood bed, a man whose relationship with her son sounded a lot more serious than co-workers, if the strain in his voice was anything to judge by.

 

“Oh, I’m, um,” Nick’s voice faltered, “have you heard from him?”

 

“Yes,” she told him calmly, wondering whether or not to tell him what she knew.  “But before I tell you where he is, I need to know what your relationship is with my son.”

 

The question appeared to catch Nick unaware, and he stumbled over his words for a moment before finally sounding coherent, “We’re, um, co-workers.”

 

“Son,” Maggie said gently, “with the way you answered the phone a few minutes ago, I know that’s not the whole truth.  I just need to know that I’m not giving information to a stalker or someone who is out to harm him.”

 

There was a heavy sigh over the line, one Maggie recognized as a sound Greg had started making soon after moving to Vegas.  Now she knew where he had picked it up from.

 

“Greg and I are—” he paused, “we… live together.”

 

Not quite the admission she was looking for, but it was obvious that it was hard for the man to admit aloud even though his tone of voice said it for the world to hear.  “Are you involved with Greg?” she asked, leading him slowly toward the answer she was looking for.

 

“Yes ma’am,” he replied slowly, a southern twang definitely present in his speech.  Yet another mannerism Greg had adopted in Vegas that Maggie could finally attribute to someone.  Without prompting, he added, “For about three years now.”

 

“Really,” Maggie’s voice fell as the realization that there would be no grandchildren reached the forefront of her mind.  It wasn’t that she was upset that her son had decided to be with a man, she would love him regardless, but there had always been that chance.

 

“I’m sorry ma’am,” Nick tried to retract his statement after hearing the disappointment in her voice, “we weren’t sure how or when to tell people.  I know this isn’t how he wanted you to find out…” there was a panicked edge to his voice, as if he was terrified that he would lose Greg… or that he had already lost him.

 

“No, no, son,” she soothed him, “I’m not upset that he chose to be with you.  You sound like a very nice young man who cares a great deal for Greg.  He was just trying to spare me the knowledge that I won’t have any grandchildren to spoil… he was always reluctant to talk to me about the men in his life, for that reason.”

 

“I’m sorry,” the man repeated, “I still wish you hadn’t found out this way.”

 

“Don’t be sorry, Nick,” she tried to reassure him.  “You’ve done nothing besides care for my son.”

 

“Yes ma’am,” he repeated, calmer now, but his voice still filled with worry.

 

“Greg is here,” Maggie told him, “he arrived right after you called.”

 

“He is?” Nick’s voice cracked slightly, struggling between worry and relief.  “Did he say why he was there?”

 

She smiled softly against the phone, stirring the pot on the stove as she debated over her next words.  It was obvious this man loved her son, and worried about him deeply, and that Greg loved him back, if the panic attack from earlier was anything to judge by. 

 

“He’s just filling in at his old lab down here for a couple of weeks,” she finally said, deciding to try to fix whatever the trouble in this relationship was.  “He had to take some vacation from the lab up there, and they really needed some help here, so he came down to assist.”

 

“Oh,” Nick sighed in relief, “I’m, just, thank you for telling me.”

 

“Are you having some trouble?” Maggie asked, gently prying to see if Nick would open up to her anymore than he already had.

 

“Just working too much,” Nick sighed, “we don’t get to spend much time together anymore.  No one at the lab knows we’re together, so we keep getting different days off…”

 

“Do you have vacation time built up as well?” Maggie asked, an idea forming in her mind.

 

“Yes,” Nick replied, her question obviously making him realize what she was thinking.  “Do you think he’d want to see me, though?  Obviously he left without telling me for a reason.”

 

“Son, I’m sure that wasn’t it,” she assured him.  “Now, when is the earliest you can get down here?”

 

“I can’t get away for a couple more days, but then I’ve got four off in a row, and I’m sure I can extend that by a few…” his voice was starting to sound hopeful, and Maggie smiled. 

 

“Then why don’t you get yourself a plane ticket and call me back when you have the details, dear,” she suggested.  “We’ll work this out, I promise.”

 

“Thank you, ma’am,” Nick’s voice had finally lost that worried edge.  “I’ll talk to you soon.”

 

“Maggie, son, call me Maggie.”

 

“Thanks, Maggie,” he replied before hanging up.

 

***

 

The following days passed in a quickly developed routine that made it seem as if Greg had never left for Vegas.  Every morning Greg was up at six, having coffee with his grandparents in the kitchen while he waited for Sunny to pick him up.

 

At a quarter past seven she pulled up, honked once, and then the pair was off to the lab.  All day Greg would be in the DNA lab, working quickly and efficiently, getting through a stack of work that would take most lab techs a week in only four days.  Never taking a lunch break, no loud music playing, Greg would only leave his workstation to use the restroom or to get more coffee.  At seven in the evening, Sunny would drag him away from his desk and either take him out for dinner or drop him off at his parents’ house.

 

So the routine went for four days, with Sunny and Jenna getting more and more worried about him as every day passed and he didn’t talk to them.  Sunny had gone so far as to call his mom to ask her about his behavior, but Maggie had uncharacteristically waved her away with nothing more than a “He’ll be fine in a few days.”

 

***

 

On his fifth day in Los Angeles, however, the routine changed.


	4. And the Beat Goes On

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Greg's routine in Los Angeles changes.

***

Greg’s day started out the same as the rest of his days had in California, up at six, picked up at seven, and in the office by nine. Los Angeles traffic certainly hadn’t changed much since he left, especially the drive from San Gabriel into downtown. The commute wasn’t too bad with Sunny for company, since she kept up a bright conversation about anything and everything. It reminded him so much of college, when they’d walk to class together, talking about movies, frat parties, people they both knew, theoretical science, any number of topics. He noticed she was careful not to ask about Vegas or his life there.

“It’s still so weird going to conferences without you,” she added after discussing one of their first DNA conferences and how they’d both been so hungover for the 8am lecture. It was the closest she’d been to saying anything about the last few years. “I’ve had to be good since I didn’t have someone to drag my drunk ass back to the room.”

He laughed and looked back over at her, his attention drawn away from the murals on the Hollywood Freeway. “I’ve paid my dues and held your hair back one too many times while you worshipped your porcelain god. Time to find some other lackey.”

Sunny grinned back at him, “You say that like I never did the same for you. Remember that Sig Nu party freshman year?”

Greg laughed good-naturedly at the reminder. He didn’t remember much about the party itself, but he definitely remembered how sick he was in the aftermath and how Sunny had slept on the bathroom floor with him. “You’re never going to let me forget about that night, are you?” he asked when his laughter had subsided.

“Definitely not,” she laughed with him. “I still have the picture on my desk.”

“You don’t!” Greg looked over at her, mortified. “I thought I destroyed all copies of that picture!”

She tried for an innocent smile, but there was far too much mischief in her eyes for it to be sincere. “You never got the negatives.”

He blinked. “Dammit.”

“There is nothing to be ashamed of, you’ve got amazing legs and everyone always comments on how good you look in that skirt.” She spared another glance from the road to see that he was indeed blushing. “Green is your color, you know. It brings out your eyes.”

“Shut up,” he rolled his eyes. “I still can’t believe you got me to wear that to a frat party.”

“John liked it well enough, didn’t he?” she teased. “It’s a shame that didn’t work out.”

Greg did remember that part of the night. He hadn’t told her the actual truth about how it had happened, just that they had made out. Which they had, but then one of his frat brothers walked in and John had jerked away and punched him in the stomach. There were some choice words sad, most of which Greg was glad he’d forgotten by now, and he’d ended his night drowning his thoughts in booze while tangled up with Sunny on the couch. He didn’t remember anything after that, just that Sunny had gotten him home somehow and held his hair back while he threw up half the night until they both passed out on the bathroom floor.

“It was a long time ago.” His gaze turned to the passing architecture, lost in his own thoughts. 

Sunny let him stay silent for a while, but there were things she needed to know and she’d given him more time than he deserved. “Greg, what happened with your guy in Vegas? You haven’t mentioned him since you got here.”

He didn’t look back at her, he didn’t even turn, just kept his eyes on the old buildings when they drove into downtown. “Nick is working.” He didn’t want to talk about Nick. He didn’t want to think about his partner and how much he’d probably hurt him when he ran away from Vegas. It’s what he had done, after all, even if he tried to tell himself that wasn’t the case. He’d avoided his calls since he’d landed in California and tried not to think too much about it. There was nothing he could do from a distance.

“Did you tell him you were here?” she asked curiously, her voice gentle but prying. It had been a while since Greg was subjected to the tone that could draw out his deepest secrets.

“I left him a note,” Greg replied. “It’s not like I left forever.” Though sometimes it felt as if it had been forever. Six years in Vegas seemed like no time at all now that he was back in the LA lab. After the debacle that was New York, the LA office had been glad to have him transfer in. He was happy there, he had his family, friends he would go out with on the weekends, surfing and skating any time he wanted… he had everything in Los Angeles. 

“Greg…” she looked over at him. “I didn’t mean… I’m just trying to figure you out. Things are different.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry, Sunny. I didn’t mean to snap at you.” He slumped in his seat, his head rested against the window.

Sunny reached over to squeeze his arm, but he didn’t turn to her. “I just want you to be happy. I worry about you.”

Greg was quiet for a while again. “I’m okay,” he murmured as she pulled off the freeway. “I don’t want you guys to worry, I just needed to get away for a little while. This was the best place I had.”

“Then we’re going out tonight,” she decided. “Das Bunker opens at ten, I’ll pick you up at nine.”

Greg smiled, her bossiness familiar. “Well I’m not going to say no to that. You get the cover charge.” 

“Okay fine,” she laughed and pushed his shoulder when they got out of the car. “But first round is on you.”

“Wait, you’re expecting us to buy drinks tonight?” Greg grabbed his bag from the back seat and followed her into the building, scanning his access card where needed. “Have you lost your touch?”

She laughed and caught his arm, tucking her hand into the crook. “Haven’t lost my powers of flirting, but if you hadn’t noticed, we’re both getting a little old. Usually I’m responsible for my first round, but the rest get paid for.”

He smiled and held the door for her, waving to the agent and techs who were already in the lab. They separated in the hallway and went to their own labs. There was work to be done.

***

Jenna walked into Sunny’s lab in the early afternoon, smiling as she greeted her colleague. “I don’t know what you did, but it’s nice to see Greg being himself.”

The younger woman pushed her hair behind her ears and looked over to the neighboring lab. Greg had music on, turned up loud, though he wasn’t dancing or wearing something silly it was nice to see him getting back to normal. “It is good, isn’t it? Now I just need to get him to tell me what’s going on in Vegas.”

Her boss smiled and squeezed her shoulder. “He’ll tell you eventually.”

***

“Gregory!” Maggie Sanders called up the stairs for her son. “Sunny’s here!”

“Just a minute!” he called back. He turned again to look in the mirror, trying to see how his ass looked in his old jeans. He’d left them behind when he moved, but six years later they fit a bit more snugly. They made his ass look amazing, he was just reluctant to go out in them without Nick. His stomach dropped at the thought of his boyfriend, wondering what he was up to, wondering what Nick would think if he saw him right then.

He shook his head to push aside the thoughts of infidelity. Greg wasn’t going out to cheat on Nick, he wasn’t even planning to find a guy to dance with, but he felt guilty anyway. His cell phone was on the counter, tempting him to call or text. He reached for it but pulled back a moment later, leaving the phone behind as he headed downstairs.

Maggie and Sunny spoke in low tones in the kitchen when Greg came down, his Doc Marten’s announcing his approach long before he reached the room and they stepped apart, waiting expectantly for his appearance. “It’s about time,” Sunny smirked. “If we don’t get going we’re going to be waiting in line for an hour.”

“Well I don’t want to do that, so let’s go,” he tipped his head towards the door. 

She laughed and headed for the door. “Bye Maggie!”

“We’ll be back late, mom,” he kissed her cheek. “Don’t wait up.”

She patted his cheek. “You know I’ll wait up anyway. Enjoy your evening.”

Greg smiled on his way out, feeling like a teenager again to know his mom would be waiting up. It was one of those things that would never change, no matter how old he got. He could come in at any hour and find his mom and Nana Olaf at the table with tea and a game of Scrabble.

“Those pants look incredible,” Sunny grinned when he joined her outside, headed down the driveway to her car. “I haven’t seen them since your 23rd birthday.”

He laughed and climbed into the car, sitting carefully because the pants were tighter than he judged upstairs. “It scares me when you do stuff like that.”

“What can I say, I have an eye for fashion.” She pulled away from the curb. “Now let’s get going, we’ve got a wild night ahead of us.”

***

The club was loud, the music familiar, and the crowd exactly as he remembered it being before he left LA. It didn’t feel like any time had passed at all since the last time he was there in the same jeans and dark eyeliner. It was easy to fall into the club rhythm, and for a while he just let instinct and muscle memory help him settle in.

Greg smirked from his position on the pole, two girls next to him and all three of them moving to steady bass beat of industrial rock. He didn’t know the song or particularly care who the band was, he just wanted to let go for a few hours and dance between the drinks Sunny kept passing him as she flirted her way through the single men of the club. Whatever she was doing, she kept the drinks coming and Greg loosened up as the evening wore on, forgetting any worries he’d had about Nick and Vegas at the beginning of the night.

“Greg!” Sunny reached up to him for a hand, happily letting him pull her onto the platform. The two of them tangled in a dance like they had since they were teenagers, no attraction between them, just a chance to dance and let loose for a while. With the amount of alcohol in Greg’s system he wasn’t doing much thinking anyway, just moving steadily to the music and oblivious to the eyes watching them. “I have a surprise for you, but you need to get me a drink first.” She grinned as they danced and climbed down from the platform as the song shifted to a new one. “Come on.”

Greg followed behind her, his fingers hooked around one of the chains that ran over her shoulder so he didn’t lose her in the crowd. He still moved to the music as they approached the bar, his attention on Sunny and the bartender so he wasn’t expecting strong hands to settle on his hips and draw him back into the crowd. Greg’s fingers slipped from her shirt and he went willingly back to the shifting throng of dancers, following the draw of strong arms and a solid male body pressed against his back.

His hips moved enticingly, rolling back against the crotch pressed to his ass until he felt the man swell against him. Greg bit off a groan when the realization of what he was doing struck him solidly in the chest and he jerked away from the body, turning to apologize and disappear back into the crowd. “I can’t-” he started to say before he got a good look at the dancer. The lights flashed around them and his vision swam, but he could have sworn that he recognized those shoulders. “Nick?” His voice slurred, but he needed it to be true. “What are you-?”

Nick stepped forward, his hands firmly on Greg’s hips to pull him close. “I’ve missed you, G,” he pressed his mouth to Greg’s ear to be heard as their bodies found a steady rhythm.

Greg wrapped his arms around Nick’s shoulders, their bodies close but not close enough, his heart thumping steadily against his boyfriend’s. It was the most right he’d felt since he got on the plane in Vegas. He’d missed this, missed the familiarity, the solid dependability that was Nick. He’d fallen in love with Nick’s particular brand of dependability a long time ago, but he hadn’t realized just how much he needed it until that moment. “I love you,” his words had a low slur to them when he pressed closer still, but he didn’t need to worry about being drunk or unsteady when he had Nick’s arms around him.

Nick smiled as his hand slipped lower to settle possessively on Greg’s ass, drawing a low moan from the younger man as they moved together. “I love you too,” Nick kissed his throat. “You look good in those pants.”

The younger CSI practically melted in his arms, and they both lost track of time with the music and the intoxicating shift of their bodies against one another. He sobered a bit as the night wore on, but having Nick so close after six days apart was enough to make his head spin as if he’d just taken multiple shots in succession. Greg couldn’t think straight, couldn’t ask why Nick was in LA, but it didn’t matter because Nick was there, now. He wasn’t going to let him go.

***

“Come on, Romeo,” Nick wrapped his arms around Greg and tugged him out of the club in the direction of Sunny’s car.

Sunny glanced over her shoulder and smiled back at the couple who lagged along behind her. She was glad to see Greg happily plastered to Nick’s side when they reached the car. “You two take the back seat. We’ve got a half hour drive to the house.”

“Thanks, Sunny.” Nick smiled over as he got Greg into the back seat. “I really appreciate it.”

“It’s all good,” she took the driver seat while Nick climbed in after Greg. The blond was back on Nick before the door closed, sitting in the middle seat to be right next to the older CSI. “I’m not sure he’ll be awake for long.”

“I’m awake,” Greg argued. “Stop talking about me like I’m not here.”

The other two laughed at the indignant tone. It sounded like Greg’s usual sleepy argument to her, and from Nick’s reaction it didn’t seem that he’d changed much.

“Sorry, baby,” Nick murmured. “We’re just teasing.”

Sunny was certain she wasn’t supposed to hear that, but it was sweet and took everything she had not to say ‘awwwwh’ aloud. She knew Greg had a guy in Vegas, she just hadn’t realized he was a proper gentleman **and** extremely attractive.

“I shouldn’t let you two talk, you’ll gang up on me,” Greg yawned and shifted until his head was rested comfortably on Nick’s shoulder. “No embarrassing stories.”

“We’ll just wait until you’re asleep for that,” Sunny teased. “I’m sure Nick has plenty of stories to share. I know I do.”

Greg kept his eyes closed when he responded, “I hate you.”

“Now, now, G. Is that how you talk to your friends who drive your drunk ass home?” Nick teased him right along with her, grinning when Greg tried to hit him on the thigh but just ended up leaving his hand there.

“Not drunk, either,” Greg corrected him. “Been working early mornings all week.”

“You’ve been down here working days?” Nick sounded surprised. “That’s a big change from grave.”

“Mmhmm,” Greg mumbled. “Jenna needed me for days. Backlog of work to get done.”

Sunny glanced in the mirror and saw Nick stroking Greg’s hair, “That’s cool you’re helping out for a bit. Their lab got lucky to have you come back.”

Greg nodded and mumbled something she couldn’t hear when he tucked himself into Nick’s side, and it seemed to Sunny he fell asleep just as they got to the freeway.

“So, how long are you in town, Nick?” she asked curiously. Neither she nor Greg knew Nick was coming into town, not until Maggie Sanders had told her when she picked Greg up. A few text messages and a cab ride got Nick to meet them at the club and she’d snuck out to let Nick drop his bag in the car while Greg was dancing on one of the platforms. 

“Until Saturday. I’ve been working doubles for the last two weeks, and with some vacation time banked I figured why not come out to California for a few days.” He was looking at Greg when he replied, his hand still tucked into the short curls the younger man was currently sporting.

“Good,” she smiled. “I know I want to get a chance to know you better since Greg’s kept you this big secret.”

“Has he?” Nick sounded surprised by that. “I didn’t think…” he trailed off for a minute. “I didn’t think that he’d keep it quiet from you or his mom.”

Sunny’s curiosity was piqued. “How long have you been together?”

“Together-together, we’re coming up on four years next month,” he looked up at her in the mirror. “But there was definitely attraction and a lot of flirting for a few years before that.”

“Wow. Well that certainly explains a few things.” she filed away that tidbit for later. “Why is it such a huge secret?”

Nick looked properly sheepish when she asked that. “I know y’all are from California and anything goes out here, but I’m from Texas, and we work with the cops up in Vegas… it’s just one of those things that’s better unsaid. Don’t ask, don’t tell.”

Sunny looked back at him in the mirror, their eyes meeting for a moment. “You think the cops wouldn’t have your back if they knew you were dating Greg.”

“It isn’t me I’m worried about.” Nick glanced down, concern and worry on his face. “I’ve been through a lot, I was a cop for a few years, I’m comfortable carrying a gun and watching my own back. Greg, though… I need to know the cops are looking out for him when he’s in the field, especially if we’re on different cases.”

“Well I’m glad he’s got you looking out for him.” Sunny turned her attention back to the road. It did sooth some of her own worries about her friend in Vegas. She wanted him happy, safe, and with a supportive partner, and it seemed that he had all three rolled into this one man who sat in the back seat of her Prius with her sleeping friend draped over him. What she saw between the pair was good.


End file.
